Update

It’s been a long time since I’ve done an update so I thought I’d give it a go. Brennan just returned from a fabulous golf trip. He worked really hard again last year and won a trip from his work. We knew we wouldn’t want to leave the babe for a long couple trip so he got past his disappointment :) and planned his dream golf trip. He and a buddy and his buddy’s two brothers who he’s gotten to be friends with as well, went to North Carolina where they got to golf several Pinehurst courses as well as some other famously gorgeous golf courses. He had a great time. He was also great missed. We love Brennan.

This guy was behind Brennan at lunch one day.

I did pretty well, but wow do I wonder how single parents do it! It’s just relentless and not to have someone to shoulder all the responsibilities with is exhausting. I have renewed appreciation for what a helpful, involved husband and dad Brennan is.

Anna is so busy I hate it. I try really hard not to over-schedule my kids. I’ve told them they can choose two things. She chose ballet and soccer. I really wanted her to take piano but she didn’t want that to count against her two things so there’s three. Plus she’s got activity days every other week, plus this play that she and Chloe are doing each week, plus about an hour’s worth of homework every day. Poor thing needs more downtime, she loves to be outside. Last week she cleared out all the dead leaves and weeds in our back flowerbed underneath our big forsythia for a little fort. She should have been raised on a farm. We love Anna.

She’s very cute, isn’t she?

Did I tell you Abby got a part in our city’s summer musical? She’s playing Princess Ying Yaowlak in The King and I. She’s very excited and so are we I absolutely love to watch my kids perform. A few weeks ago Abby got into one of her moods, the kind when she’s extremely silly and laughs so hard at herself you can’t help but join her. For some reason she kept half saying and half laughing while she said “Beware, for (right here she would do air quotes) Determination!” She meant extermination and I don’t think she has any idea what air quotes are for. Even with extermination I’m not really sure what she was saying but she got us all laughing. We love Abigail.

Last night I was singing some primary songs to the boys to get them to sleep. I looked over at Nate and tears were streaming down his face. Alarmed, I asked, “Nate, what’s wrong, why are you crying?” His face crumpled and his voice stammered as he got out, “I…miss…Great Grandma!” Oh, it just about ripped my heart right out. “Why are you thinking about that?” “All those songs about heaven!!!” He has an old football video game that he’s kind of obsessed with. He runs out after each play to tell me all about it. His enthusiasm is darling. We love Nathan.

Benjamin has some serious 4 year old attitude lately. I’m hoping that if I stick to my guns he’ll give up and surrender to my authority. Stubborn little stink. He’s also developing quite a sense of the dramatic telling me that since I put him in time-out his leg wouldn’t work anymore. The other day when he was upset with his siblings he said, “They are making me cry very loud!” Fortunately, we still think he’s irresistible. We love Benny.

Joshy baby chubs is just like the yummiest, most satisfying dessert you could imagine. He sits on my kitchen floor most of the day and while still not crawling or army crawling still manages to travel all over and will go to great lengths to get to a ball or a car. He’s simply scrumptious. We love Joshua.

When You’re 4 and You’re Ben…

You spend your mornings fishing for sharks with a measuring tape off the coast of …couch in mismatched jammies with a golf glove and a panda mask on.

When you’re 4 and you’re Ben you want pizza for lunch and even when your mom tells you she doesn’t have any pizza, you’ll keep telling (and yelling) that you want pizza for lunch.

When you’re 4 and you’re Ben you’ll tell your Mom you’re cleaning her room for her and then when she looks to see how exactly you’re cleaning she sees that you’ve cleared her dresser off and are doing this:

Uh, so yes this is our bedroom and that wallpaper (which was lovely in it’s day) was going to be to be the first thing we got rid of. Almost eight years later…yeah)

Untitled from Andrea W. on Vimeo.

When you’re 4 and you’re Ben you have lots of opinions and you feel more strongly now than you did when you were just 3 or 2.

When you’re 4 and you’re Ben you’re very loved.

Talents - I've Got Some!

For those of us whose talents are a little less obvious than well, everyone else's our day has come! My very talented sister has started things off and challenged us to declare our talents. Now before you go and tell me that I'm being hard on myself let me assure you that I am generally NEVER hard on myself. That said, I'm pretty aware of what I don't do well, but I've made my peace with it and while it bugs me every now and then I've accepted it and continue to work on those things. Basically what I'm trying to say is that I'm about to list some of what I consider my talents, try not to be intimidated ;) and try not to take this as a cry for help and a plea for assurances of my great worth. When my children look back and remember how our house was always messy and how often I lost my patience I'll whip out this post and show them how lucky they are to have me in their lives. Okay, enough disclaimers, here we go:

• I am freakishly strong. (Now I know why, the Good Lord knew I'd be lugging around some seriously chubby babies). I am an incredibly inaccurate and inconsistent bowler, but I throw that bowling ball so hard it's impressed my Dad for YEARS. Seriously, you should see it. Or just ask my Dad, he loves to talk about it.
• I have the good fortune of not needing anyone else for good humor. I find myself really funny sometimes and am not above laughing at my own jokes. (I do find lots of other people funny too, it's just nice that I don't need them to get a laugh.)
• I'm a fabulous finder. I've honed my skills from years of being unorganized and never putting things in the same place. Seriously, I can find a missing shoe, my keys almost every day, a needle in a haystack, etc., etc. faster than anyone in my family. (I'll admit my competition isn't much, they're all hopelessly terrible at finding things.)
• I inherited my Grandpa's love and appreciation for characters. As in really colorful people and then I went and married one and then I bore 5. While I'm not always patient with some of their eccentricities, on some level I always see some humor in it and think they greatly enrich my life.
• I sing lullabies well. I have no memory for lyrics to songs and I've lost all my nerve for public singing, but I do have a few lullabies that I know all the words to and when it's nice and dark I can sing with the best of them :)
• I'm not a flake. I'm disorganized and last-minute and barely keep my head above water, but I'm not a flake.
• There's this one game that I think my parents gave us for Christmas when we were kids called, "Rubics Race" and I was pretty much unbeatable. My brothers refused to play me after a while because they got tired of being slaughtered. I could also usually beat them in indian leg wrestling (that's what we called it, probably not very pc is it?). I'm usually good at games in general and am very competitive.
• I'm good fixing things. One day Brennan was with some buddies leaving our house to go golfing. When he tried to close the garage it wouldn't so he called me from his car and asked me if I could please fix it. He took more than a little abuse about that from his buddies.

Okay, your turn, what are your talents?

Thank you, Spring!

First of all for coming. We wondered if you would ever arrive there for a while. Secondly, thank you for being warm enough to put shorts on Joshua so that I have access to those legs all day long.

Benny's Birthday and Spring Break - Part II

Congratulations for making it to part II! Wednesday last week, we headed down south to see Brennan's family. We hadn't been there for way too long so it was wonderful to see Brennan's step-sister, Emily and kids, Sheldon and Maya, and meet her fiance and his kids. The kids love Sheldon and loved being with him again and we all fell in love with cute spunky Maya. We had a great visit with his Grandma Ena and her husband Wayne, she just ate the kids right up. We really enjoyed just hanging with Jamie (Brennan's Mom), John (her husband) and Brett (Brennan's brother). They're such good sports about being totally overrun by our motley crew. Brett is such a fun uncle and the kids just adore him. They spent hours hunting for lizards in the backyard.

Jamie joined us for a beautiful hike through Snow Canyon to the Petrified Sand Dunes. It was a blast.

We got to visit a good friend, Jed, and his kids and try out their fun go-carts. Brennan put Benny on and before he could finish explaining what to do he took off. Fortunately he steered it in a perfect circle and came right back to us. Scared us to death!!!

We had a little family photoshoot so pray they turn out! The photographer did a great job and it was actually pretty painless. She was so kind to work us in last minute I'm so excited to get the results back. After pictures, the kids were anxious to change into their summer clothes and run through this beautiful water feature. What a fabulous change from the snow we left behind!

It really was a much needed wonderful get-away for our family. Thank you so much John and Jamie for hosting! We drove home on Saturday and Monday we had Ben's official birthday party. We were lucky enough to have my brother and his family from NM in town so we had most of us his cousins there which made it extra special. With the cousins, my kids and a few neighbor kids we had a total of 17 kids there. Perhaps you'll understand why I lacked hands and time for photos. It was a fun little party with a jungle theme. We had a snake cake and played pin the tail on the giraffe, and feed the monkey and whacked at an alligator pinata. Good times!

Lastly, it was Ben's very first soccer game last night. His uniform is, of course, gigantic, but he doesn't mind. He also felt like a headband would be a great addition. When we asked him if he wanted to sign up for soccer he told me, "I uhzackly (exactly) know how to play soccer, Mom." So, he's already a pro.



The end!

Benny's Birthday and Spring Break - Part I

There has to be another word to describe how I feel other than "tired". It just doesn't begin to express my current state. Writing about my favorite subjects is cathartic for me so I decided to give it a go, but I can't guarantee it will be at all intelligible. It's been a fun filled, action-packed, chaotic week. There's lots to tell so get comfy :).

Just look at that round little face and tell me you're not smiling right now.

We started April with one of my favorite events - General Conference. We get to set aside our regular church responsibilities for a day and leave the 3-ring circus at home. Don't get me wrong I love going to church, but twice a year to have a break from the normal routine and to curl up on the couch in jammies to listen to some amazing and inspired men and women is just heavenly. It was especially inspiring to hear pretty much every speaker talk about the importance of teaching our kids the Gospel in our home. We've got some improving to do, but I'm just so grateful to have something to shoot for. It was also Easter which was especially nice. I love Easter and I love that it corresponds with Spring and that everywhere you look (aside from a few rogue snowstorms) there are a million visual reminders of rebirth. That thanks to our Savior death and sin like Winter do not have to be permanent.

Saturday night while the guys went to the Priesthood session my mom and sister and the kids and I went to my Mom's where the kids helped make breakfast for dinner. It was very nice and very mellow. We reconvened at my parents' home after the Sunday sessions for a great dinner and more cousin/grandparent time.

My beautiful mom with Belle and my little man, all in a happy daze

The next day was the beginning of an entire week off school for the kids! Here's what it looked like:

There's just something wrong about sledding for spring break

That Tuesday, April 6th, was Benjamin's 4th birthday! Wow, how did this happen? Funny, I remember driving through a pretty major snow storm to the hospital when he was born. I guess snow on April 6th isn't all that rare around here. Ben had a great birthday it was pretty low key, just opened presents in the morning and had cupcakes and ice cream that night while we got ready to leave for a little trip down south the next day. Ben is such a sweet, happy boy. He's a funny combination of really scrappy, independent and outgoing while also sweet, sensitive and introverted. It's amazing how you wonder how on earth after 3 unique strong personalities a 4th child can possibly find a niche in the family. Well, that has not been a problem for Ben. We love our big 4 year old so very much. Happy, happy birthday Benny boy!

That night Anna and Nate had some friends over. I'm so grateful all my kids have such cute, sweet friends.

It was a nice beginning to our Spring Break.

Happy Easter

We've had several lessons about what Easter is really all about. I guess it's all kind of a lot for Ben to absorb, but I think, thanks to Abigail, he gets some of it because this morning he crawled into bed with me and said, "Mom, did you know we get to see Great Grandma again?" Not totally sure where he was going with that I said, "when?" "When we die and go to heaven we get to see her!" "Where did you learn that, Ben?" "Abby told me."

Later this morning I asked Abigail about and she told me that when I was out of town they were drawing pictures for me to welcome me home and were using some colored pencils we got from my Grandma's house (who passed a way a few months ago). Abby said Benny got really sad and said, "We're never going to see Great Grandma again!" This sweet sister of his explained that we would see her again in heaven when we die. Isn't that sweet? I love that he's clearly been thinking about it for the last week and is so happy about it. I'm so grateful my kids can know these things and have some hope in this often sad and difficult world. Happy Easter.